Design Engineer

About the Design Engineer Role at Ashby

As a Design Engineer at Ashby, you'll engage in a unique role that combines the creative freedom of design with the tangible impact of building software. This position is perfect for someone who thrives on iterating design ideas in Figma and then bringing them to life with actual logic and data in code, leveraging systems like React components for comprehensive critique.

While every engineer at Ashby can design and build, you will specifically tackle our most challenging design problems. You will also play a crucial role in enhancing our in-house design system and providing expert consultation on bespoke work, helping others improve their designs.

What We’re Building

Ashby is dedicated to improving the productivity of working professionals, starting with talent teams, by developing intelligent and powerful software. We aim to design products that are approachable for beginners yet masterable and extensible by power users, setting a new standard for tooling in Talent Acquisition.

We have a strong customer base, including notable companies like Notion, Linear, Shopify, and Snowflake. Ashby boasts impressive growth and retention metrics, with tens of millions in ARR, growing over 100% year over year, and serving over 2500 customers with very low churn and substantial runway.

Engineering Culture

Our engineering culture at Ashby is built on the belief that a small, talented team, given the right environment, can build high-quality software fast while maintaining regular hours. We achieve this through:

• Minimal process with significant ownership over decisions typically made by product and design teams.
• Natural collaboration and deliberate communication to facilitate feedback across time zones.
• Investment in advanced tools and abstractions to increase leverage and efficiency.
• A conscious effort to build a diverse and inclusive team.

Engineers at Ashby run their own projects, moving from problem briefs to customer research, product specs, wireframes, and end-to-end implementation. We prioritize engineers' ability to drive solutions and coach skills rather than relying on rigid processes.

Interview Process

Ashby’s interview process is designed to help you showcase your best self, focusing on collaborative work and deep dives into past projects rather than leetcode or whiteboard exercises. The process consists of three main rounds:

• Introduction Call with Hiring Manager: A 15-30 minute live discussion.
• Technical Screen: A 1-hour live pair programming session within our actual codebase.
• Three Non-Coding Interviews: A total of 3 hours and 15 minutes live, focusing on product thinking, technical design, and infrastructure (can be split across multiple days).

Your hiring manager will be your primary contact, providing guidance and preparing you for each round with written instructions. You will meet 4 to 6 engineers, with dedicated time to ask questions. Feedback will be provided regardless of the outcome.

Your First Three Months at Ashby

We ensure an exceptional onboarding experience. Your development environment is set up with a single script, allowing you to push your first product change on day one. You'll spend the initial months shipping product changes that progressively increase in scope, offering a comprehensive tour of our codebase and best practices. Your manager will conduct 30, 60, and 90-day reviews, and you'll be paired with a peer for support, pair programming, and regular check-ins. The team also conducts training sessions on our culture, product, engineering process, and technical architecture.

Technology Stack

While prior experience in our specific stack is not required, a fondness for typed languages is beneficial. Our technology stack includes:

• Frontend & Backend: TypeScript
• Frontend Framework: React
• API: GraphQL
• Runtime: Node.js
• Database: Postgres
• Caching/Data Store: Redis

We prioritize strong fundamentals, such as debugging and abstractions, and a candidate's ability to learn quickly. Many of our current engineers successfully transitioned from other languages and platforms.

Benefits

Ashby is committed to creating an environment where employees are happy, challenged, and productive. We offer a comprehensive benefits package:

• Competitive salary and equity, with a 10-year exercise window for stock options.
• Unlimited PTO, with strong encouragement to take time off.
• A minimum of 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave, adjusted for regional requirements outside the US.
• Generous budget for equipment, software, and office furniture.
• $100/month education budget, with coverage for more expensive items like conferences (with manager approval).
• Top-tier health insurance for you and your dependents, with 100% of premiums covered by Ashby (for US employees). High-quality supplemental health insurance fully covered for those outside the US.

Key skills/competency

• Design Systems
• UI/UX Design
• Product Design
• Frontend Development
• React.js
• TypeScript
• GraphQL
• Node.js
• Postgres
• Problem Solving
• Customer Research